Scientists hope their research leads to vaccine reducing effects of obesity

Updated 1:25 pm, Monday, March 25, 2013

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Christopher J. Lyon, from left, Willa A. Hsueh and Tuo Deng of the Methodist Diabetes and Metabolism Institute are working on a vaccine designed to reduce the production of inflamed fat cells, which are linked to the development of diabetes. less

Christopher J. Lyon, from left, Willa A. Hsueh and Tuo Deng of the Methodist Diabetes and Metabolism Institute are working on a vaccine designed to reduce the production of inflamed fat cells, which are linked ... more

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

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Willa Hsueh, director of diabetes research, left, and Tuo Deng, post doctoral, center fellow, and Christopher Lyon, research associate, talk about fat cells that become inflamed causing insulin to work in diabetes patients, Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston. ( Nick de la Torre / Chronicle ) less

Willa Hsueh, director of diabetes research, left, and Tuo Deng, post doctoral, center fellow, and Christopher Lyon, research associate, talk about fat cells that become inflamed causing insulin to work in ... more

Photo: Nick De La Torre, Staff

Scientists hope their research leads to vaccine reducing effects of obesity

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Not so far in the future, the medical complications linked to obesity - an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cancer and end-stage liver disease - could be reduced by a simple vaccine.

People who got the vaccine would still be overweight, but the strain on their organs and organ systems would be greatly diminished, allowing doctors to better treat the obesity itself.

"We always want to emphasize that the best treatment for obesity is diet and exercise," said Tuo Deng, first author on the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the institute.

But a vaccine that reduces or disrupts the production of inflamed fat cells could "revolutionize" the treatment of obesity's worst consequences, he added.

Along with Christopher J. Lyon, a senior research associate at the institute, and Willa A. Hsueh, the institute's director, Deng led a team that studied fat cells in obese women and overfed male mice. The surprising results were published as the cover story in the medical journal Cell Metabolism on March 5.

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The scientists found that high-calorie diets cause fat cells to send out false distress signals through certain proteins. Usually, these proteins indicate that the fat cells are fighting off bacteria and viruses, although that isn't the case in this scenario.

Nonetheless, immune cells in the body are tricked into believing there's cause for alarm and go haywire, becoming inflamed. Inflammation of fat tissue contributes to the development of Type 2 diabetes and other diseases.

The surprising discovery here is that the fat cells instigate the inflammation; for a long time, fat cells were thought to do little more than store and release energy.

The team even commissioned a cartoon image to help explain the process they uncovered, featuring a fat cell and an immune cell in a boxing ring. The fat cell has thrown a punch and the immune cell's boxing gloves have burst into flames.

Although the scientists have identified the group of proteins that trigger the inflammation as major histocompatibility complex II, or MHCII, they're still trying to identify the specific substance - or antigen - that activates the inflammation in the immune cells.

Once they find it, they can design the vaccine.

"We don't have a vaccine yet," Lyon explained. "The vaccine would suppress the response to the antigen and decrease the overall level of inflammation in the tissue."

To find the best candidates for the vaccine, doctors would determine the body mass index of their patients - anyone with a BMI greater than 30 is considered obese - do blood tests and take biopsies of their fat tissue, Hsueh explained.